USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 36
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The organization of the institution comprises three courses: (1) Mechanical Engineering (including Electrical Engineering); (2) Civil Engineering; (3) Chemistry. Each course covers a period of four years, including, besides reci- tations and lectures, laboratory work and shop practice. Elaborate courses are offered in drawing, and four years in language, including English, German, and French. “All members of the Freshman class practice in the workshop until the beginning of the third term, when the election of courses is made. During the third term, those who elect civil engineering spend eight hours per week in the machine- shop, and the remaining part of the practice time in civil engineering. Those who elect chemistry spend all the re- maining time in the chemical laboratory."
The engineering laboratory is supplied with the best known forms of apparatus, comprising two engines, numer- ous dynamometers, testing machines, standard bars, balances, electric chronographs, etc. The polytechnic shops have ac- commodations for a hundred boys, with the most perfect machinery equipment. The apparatus for the study of elec- trical engineering is very complete.
For admission to the school, candidates must be sixteen years old, and show a fair proficiency in all the common branches; algebra to quadratic equations, and plane geom- etry. The institution enrolls about one hundred and fifty,
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PRIVATE AND ENDOWED INSTITUTIONS.
and since 1885 (the first class) has graduated forty-six. Of these, ten are electricians, or are in the employ of electrical companies; eight are engaged in some form of manufactur- ing; six are in trade; eight are connected with the railroads, either as engineers or in clerical or official capacity; three are mechanics, and three civil engineers; and one each en- gaged in mining, architecture, and instruction in engineer- ing. Two are lawyers, and two are pursuing advanced courses in technology.
The aim of the school is simple, offering to young men "a good education based on the mathematics, living lan -. guages, physical sciences, and drawing, together with a prac- tical training in and a familiarity with some form of ap- plied science." Neither Greek nor Latin is taught. The results have been very satisfactory.
2. Vincennes University.
One other institution should, perhaps, be considered as belonging to this class of schools. This is the Vincennes University. While not denominational or private, it is not a public school, as that term is understood in Indiana by the present generation. As has been noted elsewhere, it was founded by the State, upon a grant of the congressional township for seminary purposes, during its territorial period ; is managed by a self-perpetuating board; and, except for a part of the time from 1822 to 1840, it has had existence as a school for more than eighty years.
By act of the Legislature in 1822 the Gibson County lands, theretofore held for the Vincennes school, were ordered sold for the benefit of the recently established State Seminary at Bloomington. From the sale the latter institution realized about $25,000, which, with interest, was returned to the former by a decision of the Supreme Court in 1854. The total endowment from this source, aggregating $40,000, was somewhat increased in 1873 by a grant of certain unsold public lands in Knox County, the total fund yielding an annual revenue of about $4,000.
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
The course includes, besides the usual academic subjects, instrumental and vocal music, voice and physical culture, elocution and art; and fits for the junior work in the regular university course. Its present faculty numbers twelve, with Enoch A. Bryan as President.
3. Independent Normal Schools.
Within twenty years in Indiana have grown up schools of unique character, styled by their promoters and disciples "Independent Normals," somewhat after the type of the "National Normal School " at Lebanon, Ohio, under the man- agement of the Holbrooks. They are institutions greatly unlike most other schools in organization and aim, and in their aggressiveness belong to the last decade. Many, but not all of them, claim collegiate standing, confer degrees, include preparatory or secondary, special, university, and professional schools under one control, and enroll hundreds of students. They are all private (independent), and while occasionally receiving aid from the localities, are sustained by the fees of students.
Their courses, while differing greatly in details, are fairly uniform in their general features. All of them, so far as is known, maintain classes in the common or legal branches, doing elementary work such as may be found in any upper- grade school; secondary classes, such as belong to the aver- age high school; business courses, including book-keeping, phonography, sometimes type-writing, and brief courses in surveying. Some of them offer also special training in music, fine art, drawing, elocution, and oratory. Besides these, most schools offer classical and scientific collegiate courses, special instruction in surveying and business, and sometimes in engineering. Ridgeville announces eleven courses; Rushville, eight; Danville, eight; and Valparaiso eleven, including law and medicine. Both the courses and the schools show varying degrees of efficiency.
While unlike in certain respects, the general plan is the same among all. The complete " course " covers about four
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PRIVATE AND ENDOWED INSTITUTIONS.
years. The first year appears as either the " preparatory " or "teachers'" course, according to the purpose of the stu- dent, the latter differing from the former in no essential re- spect except that it is made to include one to three terms of "professional " work. The subjects are those of the common school, with sometimes algebra and something of elementary science "added. The second and third years constitute the " scientific course," and are given to secondary work, includ- ing more of mathematics and science, and a little extra time devoted to English and history. The "classical" course comprises the work of the fourth year, and includes, besides an extension of the Latin, the beginning of Greek and the reading of Xenophon, Homer, Æschylus, and the Greek Testament.
The character of the schools, or their aim, as fixed by their founders, varies. They are now "Teachers' Schools " or "Business Schools," "Colleges," or "Universities"; some- times only "High Schools." One manual points out the aim of the institution "to make a higher education possible to the masses." Another says: "The school does not aim to occupy the sphere of the literary colleges, but offers a prac- tical course of study to young and old, fitting them for teach- ing, for business, for the study of law, medicine, or theology, or for good work in any other vocation." Still a third ad- vertises "not only all the advantages of the best normal schools, but opportunities of accomplishing the same work as is done at the best colleges," in from one half to three fourths of the usual time. While most of them are purely academic institutions, a few add professional instruction-in law and medicine-and generally something of teaching. The subjects, also, included in any course vary with the maker of the course. There is no considerable uniformity either of subject matter or sequence. Every school is "independent " -a law unto itself. Within the same school, indeed, every department is almost equally independent. One institution, for example, announces that "the classical course can be completed in a hundred weeks"; the teachers' course in
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
twenty or thirty. This only assumes proficiency in the ele- mentary subjects as a preparation.
Notwithstanding all of which, however, there appear cer- tain features more or less common to all of the schools.
1. Among these marks may be noted the continuance of instruction throughout the year; making the advantages of the school available to a greater number, and especially to teachers and others employed for a portion of the year.
2. The terms are made short (but eight to ten weeks), and classes in all the elementary, and certain higher branches, much in demand, are organized each term, or at various times in the year-adjusting the work to students of unequal attainment.
3. In this way the length of a full course may be reduced to three years, and the subjects be all gone over.
4. Again, in theory at least, an emphasis is put upon the so-called practical subjects, the arts and applied sciences. What students intend to do after leaving school shall deter- mine their work in school.
5. The selection of this work is left to the preference of the learner. From the time when the elementary subjects are finished, large, almost unrestricted, options are accorded to all students.
6. This large individual freedom in the choice of subjects is perhaps but part of a more fundamental trait of these schools, which eschew all prescription and restraint in mat- ters of deportment as well as instruction. Government is reduced to a minimum. Regulations are few. Adaptation to the conventionalities is individual and from choice, or not at all.
7. Finally, in a reduction of expenses, another claim.is made to distinction by these schools-the total expenses for a year of fifty weeks varying from $100 to $175 per student.
The following list is meant to be complete of the institu- tions of this class now in operation. A half dozen of them only, perhaps, have an established reputation; the few are widely known :
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EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
Table of " Independent Normal Schools."
1. Northern Indiana Normal
1873
Valparaiso.
2. Central Indiana Normal School.
1876
Ladoga.
3. Central Normal College and Com. Institute. 1876
4. Indiana Normal College.
1885
Covington.
Mitchell.
6. Borden Institute
1884
Borden (Now
Providence).
7. Tri-State Normal College.
1885
Angola.
8. Southern Indiana Normal College.
1888
9. Marion Normal College ..
1889
10. Academic and Musical Institute.
1890
Rushville.
11. Ridgeville College and Indiana Normal School ...
1867
Ridgeville.
(1890)
12. Normal and Classical Institute
1891
Muncie.
13. Indiana Normal University
1890
Evansville.
14. Normal School and Business Institute.
1889
Columbus.
15. Hope Normal School
....
Hope.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
No single agency has done more, perhaps, toward build- ing up our schools than the public, more or less professional, voluntary and free conference of friends of education upon improving the system. These gatherings of teachers and public-spirited citizens ·began early in the State's history, and their all-sided, frank, and sometimes acrimonious dis- cussion of the ways and means in school organization and administration was chiefly responsible for the system worked out.
These societies or conventions were of two kinds: those having for their purpose the creation of a public sentiment favorable to an aggressive educational movement, which were general and grew out of the exigencies of the time, and the more purely professional ones, more or less exclu- sive, and looking first to the improvement of the teaching body. The former were participated in and drew their in- 29
Danville.
5. Southern Indiana Norinal College
1880
Princeton.
Marion.
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
spiration from this same class, but were re-enforced by an active interest from the clergymen, the lawyers, the trades- men, and the farming class as well, by whose influence schools, not a few, were founded, and laws enacted.
1. General Associations.
As early as 1836, before there was a semblance of a school system in the State, such a convention was held in Indian- apolis during the session of the Legislature. Governor Noble presided. President Andrew Wylie, of Bloomington, delivered the principal address ; James G. May, another. R. W. Thompson, Moses H. Wilder, and others were pres- ent. It was a notable gathering.
Eight years after, there was formed in the East the Na- tional Board of Popular Education, with Governor Slade, of Vermont, as President, and having a Western agency at Cincinnati managed by Miss Catherine E. Beecher. The organization collected companies of teachers semi-annually at Hartford, Conn., carried them through a six weeks' or two months' special training (a sort of normal school), and brought them by their agents to places already provided in the North west, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Within four years a hundred had been thus sent out, nearly one half of whom found positions in Indiana.
President Slade visited Indianapolis in 1845, a meeting was held, an organization effected, and a committee-con- sisting of Hon. Isaac Blackford, James Blake, James P. Coburn, Calvin Fletcher, and others-appointed to ascertain the extent of the demand for teachers in Indiana and co- operate with the general organization. Altogether, it is estimated that more than one hundred teachers were so furnished to Indiana. It was an early form of the modern teachers' bureau, under conditions that made it greatly needed. The Western Baptist Educational Association, operating about the same period, though originating in the East, sought "to promote schools and education generally in the Valley of the Mississippi," and distributed educa-
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EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
tional documents and placed teachers in both Indiana and Illinois.
In May (26-28), 1847, a State Common School Conven- tion was held at Indianapolis, similar to that eleven years before. It met to consider the needs of legislation, and was a working body. There were Henry Ward Beecher, J. P. Coburn, Ovid Butler, O. H. Smith, Rev. E. R. Ames, and others. Hon. Isaac Blackford, present again, was the pre- siding officer. A committee of seven was appointed, of which Rev. E. R. Ames was chairman, to prepare for distri- bution an address, and to lay it before the Governor and the next Legislature. The session lasted three days, and ad- journed to meet December 8th of the same year.
A correspondent of a Chicago paper, who was present at the meeting, said in his report : "It was certainly one of the most extensive voluntary assemblies, expressly identified with the important interest of popular education, which I have ever attended East or West. The cream of the intelli- gence and virtue of Indiana was there collected; governors, judges, congressmen, lawyers, presidents and professors of colleges, teachers of seminaries and common schools, minis- ters of various denominations, and other patrons deeply in- terested in the subject of public instruction, were convened and inspired by a common impulse." Its spirit and purpose were everywhere commended.
At this meeting the report of the committee was heard, which included, besides a statistical and critical and elabo- rate address, a bill ready framed, which it was proposed to submit to the Legislature. The session was held in the House of Representatives, and there were present, besides prominent educators from the central counties, members of both Houses of the Legislature. After much discussion a bill was finally agreed upon, which, being presented to the Legislature, though not passed, led to the submission of the question of free schools to the people at the polls in August of the year following (1848). What most concerns us in this connection is that at this meeting was formed a State
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
Educational Society, having the same purpose, but a perma- nent organization. In May following was held the first meeting under the new control, the third of this series of State conventions. It had the added sanction of a joint reso- lution of the General Assembly recommending such con- ference.
Whether the people of the State were favorable to a sys- tem of free schools was to be determined at the polls in Au- gust; and the educational convention appointed a committee of five-consisting of the Rev. T. C. Holloway, James H. Henry, Esq., Hon. Jeremiah Sullivan, Charles Test, and J. L. Jernegan-to prepare an address to the voters of the State. This trust was admirably executed by the committee, the newspapers generally published the appeal, and Judge Kin- ney was appointed and employed by the society as a special agent "to travel through the State, deliver addresses, and endeavor to awaken an interest in behalf of free common schools." Upon the assumption that if the cause were prop- erly understood free schools had nothing to fear, it was rec- ommended to friends of education that meetings be held in every town and neighborhood in the State previous to the August election. Many such meetings were held, and it is safe to say that never was the State more thoroughly can- vassed for educational purposes under equally unfavorable conditions; notwithstanding which a majority of the coun- ties were not reached at all.
No record has been found of further meetings of this or any similar body. The August vote had been sixteen thou- sand in favor of free schools, and the campaign became local, through counties or by districts, though more professional, and finally took form in the State Association in 1854.
2. Teachers' Organizations.
As early as 1838 it is found that in certain counties teach- ers were already accustomed to occasional meetings for the purpose of self-improvement and the public discussion of vital questions in life and culture. The Governor's message
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EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
of that year makes mention of some such, and particularly commends those in Wayne County as "gotten up in the right way, breathing the right spirit, and showing that they (teachers) entertain a just and becoming sense of the dignity and importance of their profession." This last is known to have been continued for ten years, and perhaps longer. In 1846 the Common School Advocate speaks of it as "the only educational society in the State."
Three years after, in October, 1849, there was held at Mishawaka, under the direction of Prof. Sweet, of New York, the first of a series of meetings that in the spring of 1851 were brought under a permanent organization, as the "North- ern Indiana Teachers' Institute." Two such institutes were held in La Porte in 1850, and, in the three years following, similar ones in a dozen cities in northern Indiana and along the Wabash. The sessions continued two weeks, and had the leadership of such men as Silas T. Bowen, Albert D. Wright, Rufus Patch, and Benjamin F. Taylor. In 1853, teachers from southern Michigan joined in the movement. The original organization undertook the publication of a paper, but it seems not to have been successful. It also rec- ommended and was instrumental in introducing into the schools of adjacent cities and towns a selected list of school- texts. It was said, indeed, in 1853, that " the principal schools in more than one third of the counties of the State had adopted them."
In southern Indiana, also, teachers developed a kindred interest in their profession. A meeting was held at Shelby- ville, in the early part of 1854, at which were present, among others, Prof. George A. Chase, so long and favorably known in southern Indiana and in Louisville; A. J. Vawter, E. P. Cole, Charles Barnes, Rev. E. Kent, and Prof. Caleb Mills. A few months later a second meeting was held at Salem. At both places resolutions were passed expressive of the need, and recommending the organization of, a State association.
A preliminary meeting was held at which were present Prof. Mills, Prof. Cole, and others, at Indianapolis, in No-
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
vember, 1854, and a circular to teachers prepared, including a programme of exercises, and calling a meeting for Decem- ber 25, 1854. The invitation when sent out had nineteen signatures, promised reduced rates on the railroads, free en- tertainment, and announced distinguished educators from abroad. The meeting was held, practically as announced; Rev. William M. Daily presided. There were one hundred and seventy-two members, representing thirty-three coun- ties, chiefly in central and southern Indiana, and a half-dozen names on the programme, any one of which would have dignified the entire meeting. Besides Prof. Brainerd, who pleaded for a recognition of drawing, and Dr. Lord, who ex- pounded the doctrine of graded schools, there were Dr. Breckenridge (the author of the common-school system of Kentucky), Hon. E. D. Mansfield, of Ohio, and Horace Mann -lawyer, legislator, and teacher. The organization has con- tinued without interruption since, holding two sessions in each of the four years from 1856 to 1859 inclusive, and an- nual sessions subsequently.
From the first it took, as it long held, the leadership in educational discussion and all progressive movements. It was a sort of rallying point for the best thought of all classes throughout the State. "All the advanced movements," says Prof. Hoss,* " were here discussed and encouraged, and in many cases directed by the association, not a few originating with it. Institutes, the normal school, the journal, the re- form school, colored schools; superintendency in county, city, and State; taxation, school architecture, and the like, including almost all possible phases of professional work, all here received attention-some their chief impulse." To these might be added, as occurring in more recent years, the creation of the Teachers' and Young Peoples' Reading Cir- cles of the State. Of both these the association has general direction, through the annual appointment of directors for their management.
* Schools of Indiana, p. 119.
443
EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
At various times in its history the general association has organized special sections among its members. Such have been the college section, now become an independent body; the high-school section, whose conferences with col- lege men in twenty years have done so much to integrate the system, and relate the work of the secondary and col- legiate schools; and more recently the country and village school section, having in view the common interests of ele- mentary teachers outside of cities.
3. Sectional Associations.
Among general associations, further, there are in Indiana, in addition to the State organization, four others that repre- sent sections of the State, and have a well-established record of service. In point of time the first of these is the Southern Indiana Teachers' Association, which held its first meeting about 1876. Its sessions, for some years semi annual, have for several years been held each spring, are often largely attended, and generally by the grade teachers as well as the superintendents and principals. It is a migratory body, ap- pointing its meetings in turn at cities in southern and south- eastern Indiana, from Terre Haute to Lawrenceburg. Its free discussion and close touch with the schools have united the teachers of this section of the State as teachers are bound together in no other part.
A similar one is known as the Northern Indiana Teach- ers' Association, organized some four years later, but whose sessions since 1883 have been regularly held. Its meetings are similar to those last mentioned, but until recently had been patronized by the supervisors and principals rather than by teachers. As a result the discussions are more gen- eral, regard education rather than teaching, and, while deal- ing with fundamentals, are yet less likely to appeal to the average teacher.
Another such body is the Ohio and Indiana Superintend- ents' Association, holding semi-annual meetings alternately in each State, in the spring and in the fall. The first gath-
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1831-'91.
ering of the kind was a conference of superintendents at Fort Wayne in 1876. It then included school-men from not only Indiana and Ohio, along the border, but some from Michigan and Illinois as well. Smart and Harvey and Bragg and White and Irwin and Ross and Tarbell and Bloss and others were present. Within ten years the terri- tory has been greatly restricted. The organization now includes the city and county superintendents of the eastern part of the State, with those across the line, in Ohio. The machinery of the body is simple, the discussions are informal, and aim to be chiefly practical, though comprehensive of all school relations. Corresponding closely to this in form and purpose is the Southern Indiana and Kentucky Superintend- ents' Association. It has but recently been organized (1885), and, like the former, is chiefly given to the discussion of questions relating to the functions and relations of the school superintendent, and the nature and conditions of the most helpful inspection. It has held a dozen meetings, and the general good effect of their discussions is shown in the improvement of the schools.
4. The County Superintendents' Convention.
Besides the general superintendents' associations, just mentioned, to which also they are eligible in the different sections, the county superintendents have had, since 1873, their own annual convention for the consideration of mat- ters pertaining to the management of the rural schools in particular.
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